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Top-secret Growler warplane bound for RAAF

Officially named the Boeing EA-18G Growler, this very advanced variant of the Super Hornet should be gracing the flight line at RAAF bases by the end of the decade.

Under the plan outlined in the new Defence White Paper, the RAAF will acquire 12 new-built Growlers.

That will make a fleet of 36 Super Hornets and 71 of the ageing F/A-18 classic Hornets, which are likely to be retired as the even more advanced Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter enters service from 2020.

So what's a Growler?

It's an aircraft configured for electronic warfare, though many of its capabilities remain classified.

It can certainly jam hostile radars and communications or even mobile phone systems. It can target enemy radars with homing missiles. It has an unspecified capability for electronic attack, the ability to spoof or even destroy enemy electronic systems.

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This is done through a series of high-powered jammer pods carried under the aircraft wings.

The current model, the ALQ-99, dates from the later years of the Vietnam war and has a number of shortcomings, including poor reliability.

A new model is under development and will likely be operational around 2020.

Growler is in service with the US Navy and was used most recently in the campaign in Libya.

Australia has long been interested in the aircraft.

The former coalition government ordered 24 Super Hornets in 2007 as a hedge against delays in arrival of the JSF.

In 2009, Labor decided 12 would be wired for Growler during production to facilitate eventual acquisition of the full capability.

Last August, the government announced it would proceed with a deal worth $1.5 billion.

At the time, RAAF chief Air Marshal Geoff Brown said it would probably represent the biggest strategic increase in Australian Defence Force (ADF) capability since the arrival of the F-111 strike bomber.